What Brake Pads?

[Guest]

You need to enlarge the photo to really see the bend.

To be fair, it was only the front pads that were so wrecked - but then no other pads I have used have ever done this (Pagid and Porterfield). In this photo you can see the edges of the pad are all chunked and a piece of pad material has melted/broken and got wedged in the middle of the pad.

 

[Guest]

Now predictably, the pads didn't work very well (no sh!t Sherlock). I bedded the pads in on the drive up to Castle Combe and had a very easy first session. They seemed to work really well to start with and lots of initial bite. They were still OK after half a day at Combe and again ok during the morning at Bedford but the pedal was starting to get a bit soft and not much bite. After Bedford I kept driving on the road with them and the brakes were truly awful - dangerous even, having little retardation and lots of squeal.

So I guess you could conclude that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I have my old Pagids back in the car and it is great again. I may buy another set of Pagids or maybe try something else. One thing is for sure, whatever I buy will be something that has been used before and comes highly recommended!

Last photo shows the back of the pad which appears burnt!

One last thing, not only was the performance and durability cr@p, but they didn't fit very well and I had to grind down all the backing plate edges just to get them into the calipers!

HTH
Richard

 

[Andy Tims]

Richard

What have the supplier and / or Mintex had to say?

 

[911sse]

I have fitted the 'green pads' that are advertised in the PP.

Just went back to OEM pads from Specilaist cars of Malton, at
the same time as fitting Zimmerman disks. Less squeal, little
brake dust at the mo.

Very happy...........

I have done 500 miles since Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! []

 

[Jamie Summers]

Richard,
As you may remember I've got the Porterfields on my car (on advice from Colin Belton at 9M), I've just done my 6th trackday plus 6k of road use on one set. At the end of the day at Bedford on Saturday (on the way home in fact) the brakes started making a really nasty grinding noise at low speed, I got the wheels off on Sunday morning to discover that the front pads on the inside were down to the metal ! the last bit of friction material had just started to break up by the looks of it hence the horrible noise. So it seems that even with only tiny bit of pad left they performed really well on the track. There is no question of our 3.2s having the raw stopping power of the 'Big Red' brigade, but I was stopping consistently and without fade all day.

Since I started typing this I've had a call from the garage to say that not only are the pads finished, but I also went through the inside of one of the disks ! Anyway the Porterfields seem to have stood up to a fair degree more abuse than your Mintex managed, they are though twice the price !

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Yes - I have used Porterfields before.

 

[Guest]

I used Porterfields once, but changed them when they glazed over ! (No track days)
They seemed to change quite quickly, over just a month or so, with a lot of pad left, so it made it a bit confusing finding the car wasn't happy stopping very well.

And they didn't take the wear sensors (no slot).

The current Pagid are fine.

 

[937carrera]

Richard,

I have used Mintex since 1989 from the original M171 to the latest compounds. I can't say I have ever experience the distortion problem you have pictured, including use on my Carrera 3 and 2.7RS [&:]

I have however seen the same problem you mentioned with regard to the backing plates being a little oversize. Maybe if you don't remove enough metal they stick in the caliper & it is that which caused the distortion. Last time I had the pad size problem I reported it back to Mintex & the problem disappeared on the next batch.

 

[Guest]

That is a point I hadn't considered. I ground a fair bit off the backing plate so they slipped in nice and easy but you could be right. Funny that it was only the front pads that were affected.

I reported the problem on size to the supplier - it was a problem on all the pads (front and rear).

 

[plhorner]

Richard,
I tend to agree on the pad fit theory. I'd imagine you can get quite a thermal differential between the pad and caliper during operation. If you don't remove enough material, once the system is warm you could find the pads locking in the caliper.
I've no idea what the exact temperatures are, but at a rough guess I estimate 200 Deg C differential between the pad and capliper. This gives only a 0.2mm expansion differential, maybe the 200 Deg C is a little off the mark !!! What sort of clearance do you reckon you had between the pad and caliper once you'd ground the material off ?

I'd imagine only the front pads were effected as they're doing most of the work and don't achieve such a high temp.
We've got an infrared thermometer at work, next time I take to the track I'll take it with me an do a few temp checks after a session and see what the brakes are getting up to.

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: 937carrera

Richard,

I have used Mintex since 1989 from the original M171 to the latest compounds. I can't say I have ever experience the distortion problem you have pictured, including use on my Carrera 3 and 2.7RS [&:]

I have however seen the same problem you mentioned with regard to the backing plates being a little oversize. Maybe if you don't remove enough metal they stick in the caliper & it is that which caused the distortion. Last time I had the pad size problem I reported it back to Mintex & the problem disappeared on the next batch.

I have used Mintex since 1989 from the original M171 to the latest compounds. I can't say I have ever experience the distortion problem you have pictured, including use on my Carrera 3 and 2.7RS

So what compound do you use now and how do you find them?

 

[937carrera]

Richard,

The (cryptic) answer is "one of the latest compounds"..you never know who is reading

I have worked my way up from 1144 to 1155, 1166 and 1177, before moving to the latest. 1177 is very hard, 1166 or 1155 would be better on fast track days I think.

 

[Guest]

I was using 1155. Even this had to be custom made (with 6 week delay) for 3.2 calipers. I will do some more research on the various compounds.

Thanks,

Richard

 

[937carrera]

That is what I would suggest for a trackday car, have you tried Questmead as a source ?

 

[Guest]

Good timing on this thread, just need to replace my front pads, so looks like the options are

1) Porterfield - as per Jamie
2) Pagid Blue - as per Richard

Use is for mild track and road use - is it worth me deviating from standard?

H

 

[Guest]

Or the other possibility is Mintex with the proper size backing plate. It seems that Questmead may be the right chaps to give an opinion.

Certainly, the zero risk option is Porterfield/Pagid. They are proven to work.

RB

 

[Guest]

Thanks richard, going with tried and tested leave the experimentation to you guys

[]

Hugh

 

[plhorner]

I'm just trying to work out what I'm running in the car at the moment before deciding what to replace them with, I've been happy with the current set-up but its been in the car since I bought it..... thats getting on for 5 years now!!!! (Not for self, must drive harder [])
The current pads don't have slots for the sensors so I assume aren't standard. Do Pagid or Porterfield have specific markings on the back or any distingushing features ?

 

[Jamie Summers]

Well, the Porterfields don't have the sensor slots, not sure about the Pagids....... Richard ????

Jamie

 

[Guest]

No sensor slots on Pagids - ditched them years ago. Wires are tied well out of the way. I check (and change) pads so often that they are redundant for me.

RB